Polish officials were spurred to act after a baby with Down syndrome survived an abortion, yet was left to die alone after crying for an hour in the hospital. Abortion is illegal in Poland except for a few rare instances: if the mother’s life is in danger, if the pregnancy is a result of rape, or if the baby has birth defects or disabilities. But after international outrage in response to the abortion survivor being left to die, Poland government officials are considering banning all abortions.
Abortion activists are, unsurprisingly, furious, and have been staging protests in response. This weekend, thousands of people showed up, some with children, to protest the potential measure in front of the parliament building in Warsaw. The protest was organized by a coalition of 60 pro-abortion groups that claim abortion is a woman’s right. One protester, Anna Jakobic, brought her 10-month-old baby to the rally, and compared a preborn baby to cancer…
“Personally, I’m not planning to have an abortion. Instead, I would like to have the right to adopt such a decision. It’s a hard decision to give birth to a child conceived after rape or a baby with disabilities. No government can decide this. Maybe they also want to prohibit oncological operations? Cancer is also live tissue.”
Preborn baby, cancer, it’s all the same thing, right? Removing a baby isn’t any different than removing cancer… at least not to pro-abortion extremists, anyway. After all, this is one of their favorite arguments for abortion. When all else fails, compare the baby to cancer.
But just for fun, let’s consider the difference between cancer and a preborn baby. In the first trimester alone, the humanity of the baby is undeniable. Within three weeks of conception, the baby already has a heartbeat; just a few weeks later, measurable brain waves. The baby’s organs are forming, such as a female baby’s ovaries and uterus. The baby has their own separate DNA strand at the moment of conception, and by 10 weeks, fingerprints that are unique to that baby and that baby alone. And, perhaps most importantly, pregnancy — and therefore, the preborn baby’s life — is an expected outcome from sex. It’s what is supposed to happen when two people have sex. It’s not a mystery disease that descends upon women with no warning and no possible prevention.
Now, a cancerous tumor… well, it doesn’t have a heartbeat, or a unique DNA strand, or little developing organs. It doesn’t have fingerprints or fingernails, and it certainly won’t grow into a human being capable of surviving outside of the cancer-stricken person’s body. And while, yes, there are some things that can increase a person’s risk of getting cancer, it’s not exactly predictable. People can get cancer without having any risk factors whatsoever. A person does not need to be a smoker to get lung cancer, or an alcoholic to get liver cancer, whereas a person must have sex to get pregnant.
But, sure. Preborn babies and cancerous tumors both consist of live tissue. So does Anna Jakobic and so do all born people. But no one would ever possibly argue that it’s OK to murder someone because, hey, we kill cancerous tumors and everything’s just live tissue in the end.
Maybe abortion activists should stop comparing preborn babies to cancer and study a little biology instead.
